Austria to hold no confidence vote in Chancellor Kurz

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will face a no-confidence vote on Monday, Wolfgang Sobotka, the President of Austria’s National Council, announced on Tuesday.

Sobotka said he preferred to hold the vote after Sunday’s European elections for a “calm and factual discussion”, according to AFP news agency.

Chancellor Kurz’s coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) fell apart after German newspapers published video footage of Kurz’s Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache offering public contracts to a Russian campaign backer in 2017.

Peter Pilz from the ecological party, Jetzt, brought forth the motion. “We are in an emergency situation and the national assembly must decide,” he said.

The Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said Tuesday his party, the FPÖ, would support a no-confidence vote. Far-right ministers from the FPÖ resigned en masse in the wake of the scandal.

Since the video footage of Strache was released by German newspapers “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) and “Spiegel,” Austria has been roiled by a political crisis.